ESA Graduate Trainee in​ Space Engineering Processes and Standardisation

Our team and mission

You will be part of the Systems Department within the ESA Directorate of Technology, Engineering and Quality at the core of the ESA technical centre in the Netherlands. https://technology.esa.int/department/systems

You will be integrated in a very dynamic team that develops in-orbit demonstration missions (https://www.esa.int/Enabling_Support/Space_Engineering_Technology/About_In-orbit_demonstrations), preparing and successfully implementing innovative and technology-packed projects based on SmallSats and CubeSats.

As part of your duties as an ESA Graduate Trainee, you will also liaise with many other areas of the Department as well as with other departments (mechanical, electrical, and product assurance).

You will work with specialised engineers and systems engineers working on projects developed by ESA.

You are encouraged to visit the ESA website: http://www.esa.int

Field(s) of activity/research for the traineeship

ESA relies on technical standards when developing new space projects (the ECSS standards from the European Cooperation for Space Standardization). These standards cover all spacecraft engineering disciplines and are maintained in collaboration with industry, capturing the knowledge and experience gained in Europe over decades of successful missions.

ESA Systems Department is leading an ongoing effort to evolve these standards and identify which parts could be waived for more risk-tolerant projects that do not need to meet the highest quality requirements. The objective is to support greater agility and speed up the introduction of innovative solutions.This effort is of strategic importance to the Agency.

As part of your traineeship, you will assist and support the project manager in charge of this effort. You will learn about the various spacecraft engineering disciplines, their workflow and requirements.

Your duties will include:

• familiarising yourself with spacecraft engineering disciplines and the ECSS technical standards;
• familiarising yourself with the main ESA project categories and development flows;
• collecting information, through participation in meetings, discussion with experts and access to databases, on engineering practices and application of technical standards;
• compiling and processing information;
• supporting project management tasks (work planning and organisation, reporting, etc.).

Technical competencies

Behavioural competencies

Result Orientation

Operational Efficiency

Fostering Cooperation

Relationship Management

Continuous Improvement

Forward Thinking

For more information, please refer to ESA Core Behavioural Competencies guidebook

Education

You should have just completed, or be in the final year of your master’ s degree in engineering. 

Additional requirements

In the course of your engineering studies, you should have covered subjects that are relevant to spacecraft systems, or at least relevant to a major spacecraft sub-system (mechanical, avionics, etc).
You should be well organised, rigorous and willing to learn about many different technical domains

You should have good interpersonal and communication skills and should be able to work in a multicultural environment, both independently and as part of a team. Previous experience of working in international teams can be considered an asset. Your motivation, overall professional perspective and career goals will also be explored during the later stages of the selection process.